By DALE W ADAMS
I
n anticipation of holiday celebrations, A turkey farm, in approximately an 1897 issue of the Deseret News Weekly the 1940s. ran a column detailing how a “housemother” could best prepare her Thanksgiving table. One hoped, of course, that a succulent roast turkey would form the center of that feast, but the columnist recognized that such a treat would not fit in every family’s budget. Not to worry: if a young bird was unavailable “and nothing short of a patriarch is available, do not despair; as an hour’s preliminary steaming will plump him, make him tender, and in good condition for roasting.” Yet “if even the honored bird—the turkey—flies too high for the housewife of limited resources, ‘mock duck’ can essay its place at a quarter of the cost.”1 As the Deseret News piece made clear, turkeys—in spite of their exalted place in American cuisine—were not always an item easily obtained. And in Utah, the ability of a home cook to present a turkey at the Thanksgiving feast might well be entwined with the intricacies of technology, markets, and transportation systems. How, then, did turkeys become a thriving element of Utah’s agricultural economy in the twentieth century? Natives and pioneers had uses for the bird, but the development of a profitable turkey industry required technological advancements, adequate financing, and the concerted action of organizations and individuals. Turkeys have a long history in the state of Utah. Paleontologists found turkey-like fossils in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in a formation dated to be some 76 million years old.2 Though wild turkeys
Dale W Adams lives in Park City and is professor emeritus, The Ohio State University. Michele Adams, Ricky Christensen, Nancy Garlick, and Dr. Robert E. Warnick assisted with this article. I especially appreciate insights provided by Leonard Blackham.
1
“Domestic Science,” Deseret News Weekly, December 4, 1897. Lindsay E. Zanno and Scott D. Sampson, “A New Oviraptorosaur (Theropoda, Maniraptora) from the Late Cretaceous (Campanian) of Utah,” Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 25 (2005): 897–904. 2
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UTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Grasshoppers, Thanksgiving Dinner, and Utah Turkeys
